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Seattle City Light Helps Drive Stronger Battery Charger Efficiency Standards

Seattle City Light's advocacy for energy efficiency is helping make the battery chargers for hundreds of millions of devices sold in the United States each year more efficient.

Seattle City Light’s advocacy for energy efficiency is helping make the battery chargers for hundreds of millions of devices sold in the United States each year more efficient.

Three years ago, City Light signed a joint letter in support of battery charger efficiency after the U.S. Department of Energy proposed standards that were weaker than those adopted by California. The Department of Energy listened and recently released a new proposed rule with standards that align with those in California and now Oregon.

“The efficiency odds just improved for the more than 500 million devices sold each year with rechargeable batteries — smart phones, tablets, and power tools are a few examples,” Marianne DiMascio of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project said in an email thanking City Light for its support. “This is great news for cutting down on energy waste and emissions.”

Andrew deLaski, executive director for the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, said the new national standards will sustain energy progress achieved by the states.  “DOE’s newest analysis found that between 90 and 100 percent of current products sold nationally are already complying with the state standards, showing that standards in just a couple of states can drive energy savings in national markets,” he said.

Changes like this ultimately help City Light’s customers use less electricity, which makes better use of our existing power resources and saves them money. That’s one more reason City Light is the nation’s greenest utility.